hankyoreh

March 29.

Military authorities’ failure to provide a clear explanation of the operation that guided the Patrol Combat Corvette (PCC) into the waters where it went down Friday night, deviating from its ordinary course, has led observers to question if the Cheonan may have been engaged in a special mission connected with the cause of the accident.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff explained Monday that the Cheonan’s stern was found 2.4 kilometers southwest of the village of Yeonhwa on Baengnyeong Island, and that the accident took place due to an explosion 183 meters to the right of this location.

The site of the explosion is raising questions among navy reservists and actively serving navy personnel, who are commenting that it was not a course that patrol ships ordinarily take and that they do not know why a PCC would enter such a course late at night.

Noting that the waters of site of the incident are around 30 meters in depth and located about 1 to 2 kilometers from Baengneyong Island, a navy reserve admiral said, “The sea is too shallow for a 1,200-ton patrol ship to sail in, and I am curious as to why they were sailing so close to Baengnyeong Island.” The admiral added, “The site of the incident is a course used by navy high-speed vessels weighing around 300 tons and fishing boats, so I do not know why a patrol ship would be going in there.”

High-speed vessels are positioned near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), in areas such as Baengnyeong Island, opposite North Korean guard boats, while the patrol ships, which are large in scale and have heavy firepower, are positioned behind the high-speed vessels, which they support in times of emergency. Many observers, chiefly navy reservists, are commenting that a precise grasp of the cause and background of the accident will require a determination of what operation brought a patrol ship close to Baengnyeong Island.

A source commented, “There is a possibility of a connection between North Korea’s coastal artillery drills near the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea through this month and the operation that the Cheonan was carrying out.” This would mean that unusual movement was detected at the North Korean military’s coastal artillery or missile bases.

If North Korean coastal artillery is aimed at a high-speed vessel positioned at the front line on the NLL, the vessel’s short firing range and low destructive power would leave it unable to respond. For this reason, these vessels are said to travel south at full speed in times of emergency. Instead, the patrol ships, which have long firing range and powerful 76mm guns, prepare for such situations. This may mean that on Friday night when the incident took place, the Cheonan and Sokcho patrol ships were sent to a site outside their ordinary routes in preparation of such an emergency situation.

It is commonly known that in sailing close to Baengnyeong Island, the Cheonan was attempting to conceal its presence using the terrain. Some observers are also claiming that the patrol ship sent to the scene of the accident also sailed close to the shore of Baengneyong Island in order to avoid being picked up by North Korea’s surveillance network.

Others are claiming that the Cheonan went to the site of the incident in order to check an unidentified object that appeared on their sonar and radar. Offered as support for this explanation is the fact that the Sokcho, the other patrol ship in the vicinity of the submerged Cheonan, fired its 76 mm gun toward an object that is believed to have been a flock of birds after the incident. In connection with this, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “They fired a warning shot in the air at an unidentified object, but it is suspected of having been a flock of birds.”

Regarding these claims, Minister of National Defense Kim Tae-young, appearing Monday at the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee, said, “The Cheonan’s captain had previously passed through the waters where the accident took place fifteen times, and the nearby waters are guarded by a patrol ship.” Kim added, “If it were an emergency situation, all of the combat personnel would have been deployed, but there is no possibility of that, as the personnel who had finished their work that evening were resting.”

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